Week 11

Busy week! I went off my usual ‘Monday = New blog entry’ equation! (Am supposed to be working on an assignment right now.. got distracted so here I am updating this blog instead hehe) But at least I’m updating this while it’s still week 11 :)

Okay then, just a short entry for today (yeah right! That’s what I said last week huh).

Week 11’s lecture still discussed the design stage.. Hang on.. *thinking*

Backtrack. The first thing we did in the lecture was finish off the Week 10 lecture slides because we didn’t manage to finish them last time. We revised through the first-cut sequence diagrams then proceeded to look at collaboration diagrams and design class models. Our lecturer was determined to ensure that we really understood these concepts because this is an important part of Assignment 2. And I have to admit, it really helped.

The second half of the lecture covered the slides for Week 11, entitled Design: The user interface. This lecture talks about the importance of being able to identify the various inputs and outputs relating to the system and selecting an appropriate interface for users to interact with the system.

There are three aspects of the user interface to remember:
1 – Physical aspects: Devices touched by the user
2 – Perceptual aspects: Things that the user sees, hears or ‘touches’
3 – Conceptual aspects: What the user knows about the system and the logical functions relating to it

We then proceeded to discuss the actual user interface and how to go about designing it, and the concept of a good HCI design.

Despite being sleepy (due to lack of sleep throughout the week, not because the class was boring or anything :D) I found the tutorial to, yet again, be extremely helpful. Not just for exams but also to drill all that we learnt in the lecture into our heads. Those Additional Exercise Questions covered most, if not all, the important concepts related to the lecture. Having us spend the class looking for the answers ourselves was indeed useful revision. What’s even better was discussing the answers at the end of the class instead of emailing our solutions. In this way each student can contribute any additional points they may have. What’s more, knowing that we’ll be discussing the solutions at the end of the class encourages us to find more points and finish as quickly as we can.

And lastly, we had a short photo session. Mr Ramesh wanted a class photo for memories sake which was a very good idea indeed. I want those photos! Both of them! The high-quality ones! :D Sad though.. our last class. The semester went by really quickly! I feel like I’m still trying to get to know my classmates and tutors.. Sad to have to say good-bye just as we’re all getting acclimated.

... Why am I getting so sentimental? It’s not like this is truly good-bye! I’ll still be able to see everyone around campus! I hope :) Thanks for everything everybody. And a HUGE thank you to Mr Yeap and Mr Ramesh!! Make that a SUPER HUGE thank you :)

Week 10

Hello :) Monday is upon us again and based on that equation I’ve been following since the third week of this semester: Monday = New blog entry.

The last few days have been quite.... (what’s the word I’m looking for..) ...hectic ? Well, busy anyway, as I - and every other FIT2001 student I’m sure - raced against time to tackle Assignment 1b. With assignments piling up and being due at around about the same time, I’m starting to find myself struggling to keep up. Last week and this week don’t seem so bad though; it’s the thought of these upcoming two weeks that scare me; 3 assignments to be submitted in each week. Week 11 assignment submissions: Wednesday, Thursday and Friday! Even thinking about it makes me feel like crying! *sob*sob* One step at a time. Or so I tell myself.

(Now that my rant on my assignment schedule is over..) Assignment 1b covered the Analysis Phase of a project, the results of which were submitted as a Requirement Specification. This contained an executive summary, a definition of the system scope (using a context diagram), a discussion of the system’s problems, opportunities and limitations, event tables, use case diagrams, use case descriptions (both brief and detailed) and analysis class models. This assignment gave me a little taste of what it’s like to be a systems analyst *wondering of whether I’d enjoy the profession or not*

So anyway, moving on to this week’s materials..

After my disappointment on the shortness of last week’s study guide, I’m pleased to say that this week’s study guide is 14 pages long! :) A fun read. And as usual, I found it easier to understand (and more fun to go through) than the lecture slides. This week’s topic is still part of the design phase and is entitled: Use Case Realisation. This basically explains that the design stage is about building up on what we did in the analysis stage. It is about adding more detail to give the programmers a thorough enough understanding of the system for them to actually build it. It is about bridging the gap between the business side and the technical programming side.

The lecture covered:

• the development of design class diagrams and interaction diagrams (sequence and collaboration diagrams)

• coupling and cohesion - these are basically about making classes as independent as possible thereby making them easier to maintain

• use case controllers, as an intermediary between the outside world and the internal system

I don’t know whether it’s because I just got used to drawing and developing diagrams for Assignment 1 or something but seeing the step by step development of the sequence diagram kinda looks fun! :D Overall it was a fairly long lecture.. we didn’t managed to go through all the lecture slides. Even so, I think we’ve absorbed enough information for today.

Today’s tutorial revolved around data flow diagrams. More specifically, being able to identify the system boundary, dividing them up into program components and converting them into a system flow chart. It was good practice. I always appreciate these class exercises because we get a chance to apply what we learn in the lectures into more practical context. What’s more, it gives us a chance to clear our doubts with the tutor. We didn’t manage to finish the Additional Exercise Questions during class though, so he has asked us to email him our work. In the meantime, going through the questions will give me a chance to further clear my doubts. Hopefully.

Lol! Odd how I planned on writing a ‘short’ entry (so I can proceed with the Additional Exercise Questions and get it completed today) and ended up writing this much!

Week 9

"Week 9 already??" These were the words that popped in my head as I was downloading this week's lecture slides. Plus one extra exclamation mark. But really, the semester’s gone by really quickly! But you know what I realised today? These blog entries really are helpful! In today’s tutorial for instance, we were working on Activity Diagrams and Sequence Diagrams, and I remember us being given an a question on Activity Diagrams before.. in one of the Additional Exercises. A quick skim of my previous entries (and entries of a friend who I distinctly remember working hard on that question) revealed that the Additional Questions were given to us in week 4. And I also remember that the actual lecture slides I was looking for (the first time we were introduced to Activity Diagrams) was one week prior to that :) Lovely isn’t it?

The Sequence Diagrams were even better: ‘Where have I seen those stick figures before...?’ It took only a few scrolls for me to find my enthusiastic comment regarding the colourful diagrams and stick figures from week 6 :) Same thing when I’m trying to work on the assignment.

Move on to today’s lecture.. Another colourful set of slides by the way. But I’m starting to think too many similar diagrams in one lecture is too confusing for me. I mean, I understand that the next few diagrams were only trying to show the different depths or level of detail but still... hang on~ *backtrack* Perhaps I should talk about what the slides were actually about before starting my rant :P

Today’s lecture was entitled: Structured Design. This is about the traditional approach to designing i.e. NOT object-oriented. This refers to methods such as Data Flow Diagrams (DFDs) and System Flowcharts. We also learnt about the Automation System Boundary which covers the need for being able to identify the manual and automated processes within the system. This is useful for the creation of modules. Structure Charts are also useful as they are simple, help describe functions and show the relationships between the various modules. There are two approaches to developing a structure chart though: Transaction Analysis or Transform Analysis. Transaction Analysis is more appropriate for upper-level modules that process multiple input or transaction types. Transform Analysis on the other hand uses DFD fragments as inputs and is therefore more appropriate for designing programs that converts inputs to outputs.

We also covered Evaluating the Quality of a Structure Chart: through module coupling (measuring how the modules are connected) or module cohesion (measuring the internal strength of modules i.e. performing one defined task). Lastly, we talked about Pseudocode, a form of module algorithm design, and the Three-layer Design, which consists of the view, business logic and data layers.

Yup, that’s another week’s worth of lecture to be drilled into our brains. The study guide was very short though!! I’m disappointed.. I look forward to those study guides each week! I guess that’s a hint for me to stop neglecting the textbook for additional reading..